School and passing NCEA Level 2 is my priority for the year, as well as making sure I achieve the best grades possible in sound engineering and composition. Because I've had to take some tracks down to make space for more, I will be removing this page soon. (Soundcloud has a track limit and I primarily clear out what I consider my least best stuff when I make room so people can see what I do best)

Here is what remains so far of the tracks I originally posted here. The tracks were inspired by Marathon's music, if you're new to this thread. They have all been made downloadable, so click away if you'd like. I will keep these up for 2 weeks, before taking them down so I can make my soundcloud my proper music portfolio. I'm sorry if anyone enjoyed them (VikingBoyBilly)

I still have all the tracks on computer and online, and I'll reupload them to a different site when I've done more stuff for it. My plan was to make one plugin with M1-fitting music to replace the songs that already played in earlier levels. and an optional (but intended) part of the scenario I was working on. I may resume it, but the storyline crashed and burned. Everything I'd done upto this point including music, story, graphics, and all are here. I plan to redo it from scratch (will probably keep the music) so if anyone's interested in helping, lemme know and I'd be happy to discuss it.Here is my (outdated) google drive backup of the so far project

Disclaimer if you read the story draft: It was lunchtime at school and I'd just finished the first game, feeling all inspired and all...I know it's terrible.

One of the project rules was never release the title screen, but this surely doesn't count since it's under music right Ares Ex Machina? You'd actually have to find it in the files first, because I already integrated it into the scenario files.

Last edited by Neonstar on Feb 21st '16, 20:41, edited 21 times in total.

I've added another track, and also tweaked Born On Board. There's now (and for future tracks) two version of every song. One that I've made more modern sounding, and one that I've made more classic sounding (ala MIDI)

Will make them downloadable once I've finished every track in .ogg and .midi format. Will also add a replacement pack for Marathon 1 on Simplici7y if I have enough tracks

EDIT: I will have multiple file formats for the downloads. If I make an Aleph One plugin, the options will be .mid for Classic, or .ogg for Classic or Original.

Last edited by Neonstar on Jun 30th '15, 10:49, edited 1 time in total.

Woops, I forgot to mention for the Aleph One plugin. I'll have mp3s, wavs, flacs, and aiff if I can export it as one. I'll host the tracks from bandcamp which can convert files before you download them.

Born On Board - Once the melody line gets going, it seemed oddly halting the way it still pauses every other bar. This effect is more noticeable in the non-classic version. The other thing that stands out to me is how in the second half, one of the instruments plays on the back beats. It's not a crazy idea, but it's not common in the original Marathon music, either.

Echoes of the Jjaro - This would be good for a reflective level, like uncovering ancient S'pht secrets. I wonder how that geiger counter clicking would play out in a map - would it still sound like part of the music?

If there are more tracks uploaded, I didn't find them. Overall, these sound like they'd work well in a Marathon scenario.

Born on Board - The Marathon tracks start getting recycled on G4 Sunbathing, and this sounds like it would be fitting for that map.Echoes of the Jjarro - I'm not accusing you of plagiarism, but this sounds a lot like Jurassic Beach from Echo the Dolphin. Weird, isn't it? Another 9+minute song starts playing after this, what's that one called?

Haven't heard of Ecco the Dolphin before. I assure you it's a coincidence, but the similarities are surprising after watching that link. I'll tweak it a bit to make it sound more unique, while retaining the song's atmosphere.

As for the 9 minute song, that's someone elses track that I found while searching for other people's Marathon tracks. I'm trying to track down the music for Marathon 2 Special Edition that was on Simplici7y. I used it years ago, and wanted to grab it again but the links were down because they were for megaupload.

Just gonna add that I haven't finished Marathon. I've only completed M2 (Had it on my xbox, discovered A1 a few years later) but I'm doing M1 atm. If music doesn't seem to fit any levels, or you think it'd work well in one of the M1 levels, please let me know, cause I'll keep the comments in mind when I make the M1 replacement plugin.

Indeed. Before I started making tracks I was hunting down for a QuickTime soundfont, preferably 2.0. I didn't have any luck though. I'm looking around for a MIDI sequencer for MacOS, so I can see if making MIDIs in Sheepshaver will net me the sound I was going for.

VikingBoyBilly wrote:The synths in the "original version" of these sounds cool, but it's still not the same synth instrument used in the non-midi M1 tracks. Someone needs to hunt down (or make) a soundfont to that...

Do you mean like the original CD tracks? Sorry, by original I meant the original versions of the songs I did, before I converted them to MIDIs. I actually had something related to the CDs (sort of) to post, but I forgot to bring my USB with me to where I'm currently staying.

I've now added some covers to the list, Landing, Rushing, and Splash are currently being worked on for the next batch of uploads. I've also made a version of Frog Blaster that sounds similar to the CD soundtrack. I'm wondering if I should make the originals sound more like cd tracks.

Footsteps - The notes at the beginning are so isolated. This is music that will loop in the background while you play, so I feel like it would be better to even things out instead of having such a distinct beginning and end.Plan, What Plan - This one's good: very Marathonesque, and possibly my favorite so far.Frog Blaster - The piano sounds better in the classic version, surprisingly - it's just too low a register to sound good in the other version.See You Starside - In the MIDI version, I much prefer the piano over the instrument that plays the melody before the piano repeats it. I like the rhythm once it gets going, but the start & end feel barren going to a solo the way they do, similar to other songs like Footsteps.Durandal Theme - You definitely got that echoey rock anthem sound. I miss the breathy vocals saying "Marathon", though.Flippant - Funky! In the middle section, the notes get buried under the sustained sounds. And as a personal preference, I like the soprano line in the last third better when they sound more like singing, over the more purely synthesized sound you have.

You know your stuff when it comes to composition. It beats the stuff I've cobbled together in GarageBand, in any case . Even the song titles are thoughtfully chosen. Good music deserve a good title, as much as a good level does.

Listening to these gets me thinking about more dynamic music. Parts of this are good for reading a terminal, and other parts are good for blasting Pfhor. It'd be cool if a scenario changed the music accordingly.

Thanks for the giant bucket of feedback! I'm glad people are enjoying my work, and more glad that some parts are fitting. I'll be taking all of this feedback into consideration when I go through and rework everything before making a track replacement for M1. There'll be two versions, one will be the Classic Addition plugin which will add what tracks fit into the later levels, so that they have their own track instead of reusing the earlier stuff. That'll be first, and then I plan to include all the classic music as a replacement, and all the original versions as a replacement.

As for the Durandal theme, sorry I can't add the breathy vocals. I can't sing, I don't have a microphone of any sort, and I couldn't isolate the vocals from the original track well enough to keep it from sounding mushy.